This morning we headed over to the Uzama railway stop so we could visit Kyoto Studio Park.  If the weather had looked clearer, or we hadn’t been so tired from a week of travel, we might have instead gone to the monkey park and/or bamboo gardens that were just North of this area, but that’s why we do the things we want to do most first on vacation!

I think Ken put it best when he said the Kyoto Studio Park was 50% cool and 50% cheesy.  There was a room full of costumes for the Power Rangers over the years

which was pretty funny.  On the weekends and during the regular season (think summer amusement parks) there are “real” Power Rangers who come out and put on a show.  This park also had some neat sets from different time periods where supposedly some actually filming goes on from time to time.  We saw some of the “shows” which were quite entertaining even if you don’t know the language and we got to go through a haunted houes which was SOO much fun.  I hadn’t been in a haunted house in like forever! It was a long journey to get there but we had a nice Chinese meal in the park (reasonably priced and tons! of food that neither of us finished) before I came up with the bright idea of wandering through the Northern area of our neighborhood that we didn’t get to on the first day and then using it as a way to wander back to our room.

Whew.  We made it but boy are we tired!  We only got to one temple in the afternoon because most of them close at 4 or 5 pm but the one we saw, Chion-in, was one we had been trying to get to on Monday but did not find.

I was so beat by the time we got here that it looked completely daunting, for some reason my feeling so good from yesterday turned into not so good today.  I don’t know if you can tell in the picture but that first flight of stairs is not the only flight. up between the center pillars was a large flight of stairs with at least 50 steep steps.  Smart Ken found a side route that took us through this really great park and still got us up into the temple area where there were actual Buddhist monks chanting and such and people praying.  It was a beautiful spot but we could not take pictures inside.

Since we really didn’t have time for more temples we wound our way through the streets of the Giion area which I didn’t end up taking pictures of because it was very crowded and there were off and on showers.  We did pick up a couple of souvenirs before the long trek back to the room which we did without getting lost.  Navigating by walking is SOO much easier for me then the whole narly bus system.

Ken is watching some sumo on TV and I guess soon we should decide what to have for dinner. I’ve tried to decide what to do tomorrow but there isn’t much left on my list and quite a few of the things are spread out so hmmm…..A decision for the morning and the status of the weather and our levels of tiredness.

I’ll leave you with one of the many cherry blossom photos I have taken, because hey, it is that time of the year.